Air diffusing device



Jan. 20, 0 LABUS I AIR DIFFUSING DEVICE 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed NOV. 26, 1954 CEILING INVENTOR.

arm A. LABUS ATTORNEYS Jan. 20, 1959 o. A. LABUS 2,86

AIR DIFFUSING DEVICE Filed Nov. 26, 1954 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 no N g/y/g/ INVENTOR. OTTO A LABUS A T'IORNEYS United 1 AIR DIFFUSING DEVICE Otto A. Labus, La Crosse, Wis, assignor to The Trane Company, La 'Crosse, Wis, a corporation of Wis consin Application November 26, 1954, Serial No. 471,272

2 Claims. (Cl. 98-40) This invention relates to a device for delivering air into a room from a duct or other source of air under pressure. It relates particularly to a device which is adjustable to deliver heated or cooled air without discomfort to the occupants of the room.

It is an object of this invention to provide a diffuser having a grille for delivering cooled air, a grille for delivering heated air, and a valve for directing the air to one or the other of the grilles.

It is another object of this invention to provide a diffuser which is so versatile that it can be mounted at the ceiling level or 'at the floor level of a room to deliver in each case cooled or heated air in such a manner that occupants experience no discomfort and a small floor to ceiling temperature gradient is maintained in the room.

It is an object of this invention to provide a diffuser which can be mounted at the ceiling level to deliver cooled air in such a manner that a flat diverging stream of cooled air makes a small angle with the ceiling and is prevented from dropping down from the ceiling by preventing any substantial induction of air above the stream while providing for the induction of air at the under surface of the stream.

.It is another object of the invention to provide a diffuser which can be mounted at the ceiling to deliver heated air in a multiplicity of jets which cause initial induction of air and coalesce into two downwardly directed streams thus obtaining better induction and entrainment of room air than would be obtained with a single stream.

It is still another object of the invention to provide a diffuser which can be mounted at the floor level to deliver a diverging flat stream of cooled air vertically upward and to deliver heated air in two diverging streams adjacent the floor level.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will appear as .the specification proceeds to describe the invention with reference to the accompanying drawings; in which- :Figure 1 is a plan view of the diffuser of this invention taken from the duct outlet side and with the sealing gasket removed.

Figure 2 is a side view of the diffuser mounted on the ceiling adjacent a vertical wall.

Figure 3 is a view partly in section taken on the line 3--3 of Figure 1.

Figure 4 is a sectional view taken on line 4-4- of Figure 1 showing the diffuser in position on a plenum.

Figure 5 is a perspective view of a portion of the valve adjusting mechanism.

Fig. 6 is a partial sectional view taken on line 66 of Fig. 2.

Referring now to the drawings, numeral 10 designates the body of the diffuser. Although the body 10 may be made of metal or plastic, I prefer to make it of plastic material, because the low heat conductivity of plastic material prevents condensation from forming on the surfaces during the cooling cycle. The body 10 is secured to a duct end or plenum 12. I prefer that the duct end or plenum 12 shall be constructed substantially as shown in my copending application Serial No. 353,961, filed May 11, 1953, and entitled Air Diffusing Device, which application issued as Patent No. 2,781,715 on January 2, 1957. The fabric valve of this prior application is equally applicable to the invention of this application for adjusting the volume rate of delivery of the diffuser.

The plenum 12 is connected to .a duct, not shown, which supplies either heated or cooled air under pressure according to the season of the year. I

The diffuser is secured to the plenum 12 by three spring clips 14 which are in resilient engagement with flange '16 of plenum 12. A-flange 18 is spotwelded or otherwise suitably secured to the flange 16 of the plenum 12. The flanges 16 and 18 preferably have coaxial circular holes of equal diameter. Each spring clip 14 is secured to the body 10 by a screw 24 and has a cam portion 29 and a cam portion 22 which engage the flange 16. Cam portion 20 engages the flange 16 to retract the clip 14 when the diffuser is being pushed into place and cam portion 22 engages with the flange 16 to hold the diffuser in place. A resilient sealing gasket 25 of sponge rubber or other flexible material is adhesively secured to the body 10 and extends completely around its periphery. When the body 10 is held in place by the clips 14, the gasket 25 is compressed against the flange 18 to provide a seal to prevent the escape of air between plenum 12 and body 10.

The body 10 has a fiat back 26 adapted to abut the wall as is clearly shown in Figure 2. The rear portion of body 10 has parallel sides and the front portion is semicircular and has an upright semicircular wall 27. A peripheral deflector flange 28 extends around the unit except at the back. This deflector flange 28 prevents the air stream from contacting the ceiling before its temperature has been moderated by mixing with room air. The deflector flange 28 does not prevent the air stream from following a path close to the ceiling. Contact of the air stream actually occurs at a distance from the diffuser where its temperature has been moderated by mixing with room air. Radial ribs 30 extend across the deflector flange to provide stiifness and strength thereto. Flange 28 has a horizontal portion 29.

The semicircular periphery of the body 10 has a plurality of air entrance spaced elongated nozzles 32 for delivering cooled air. The nozzles 32 are spaced from each other so that the air discharged therefrom is in a plurality of spaced streams which induce a flow of room air. The induced room air is often referred to as secondary air. The mass flow .of air, the size of the room, and the amount of induction desired dictate the width of the space between nozzles. For a residential room of .average size, I have found that a nozzle width of one-fourth of an inch and a space width of one-fourth of an inch gives the desired induction of secondary air. The air entrance sides of these nozzles 32 are smoothly curved to prevent turbulence and noise which would otherwise occur from the movement of air through the nozzles.

The bottom of the rear portion of the body 10 has a plurality of elongated nozzle openings 34 separated by inclined vanes 36. The vanes 36 are of substantial thickness so that the jets of air are spaced for induction of air therebetween. The transverse center line of each vane is inclined with respect to the vertical at an angle between 15 and 45. For instance, with a room having a very low ceiling, an angle of about 45 would be used to allow thestream of air to slow down before reaching the zone of occupancy. With high ceilings the angle should be about 15 in order to project the the wall, streaks of dirt would appear on the wall after a prolonged period of operation of the diffuser.

An arcuate valve plate 40 is slidabl-y mounted in a circular groove 42 in the bottom 43 of the body 10. The arcuate valve plate 40 has a turned-over edge 44 at its lower side to provide stiffness and a turned over edge 46 at its upper side to receive and hold a flexible strip 48 of fabric or felt. Interior walls 50 extend upwardly from the bottom 43 of the body 10. These walls 50 are preferably of plastic material and they are substantially rectangular in shape as shown in Fig. 3 and of substantially uniform thickness as shown in Fig. 1. The walls 50 extend radially inward substantially to the groove 42 and to the valve plate 40. The walls 50 and the valve plate 40 as positioned in Fig. 1 form a partition which requires all of the air to flow through openings 34. The flexible strip 48 sealingly engages flange 18 of the plenum 12. The walls 50 divide the interior of the body into a rectangular chamber 47 and a semicircular chamber 49. Valve plate 40 cooperates with interior walls 50 to direct all of the air through the heating nozzles 34 in the position of adjustment shown in Figure l and to direct all of the air through cooling nozzles 32 when the valve plate 40 is rotated 180 with respect to its position in Figure 1. An actuating arm 52 extends through and closely fits a slot in the arcuate valve plate 40. The inner end of actuating arm 52 is secured to angle bracket 53 as by spot welding. The horizontal arm 51 of angle bracket 53 has two segment shaped holes 54 whichreceive segment shaped prongs 55 on shaft 56. Relative rotation between angle bracket 53 and shaft 56 is therefore prevented. Shaft 56 is rotatably mounted in hole 57 in bottom 43 of body 10 and is held in place by a sheet metal member 58 which has a circular hole which receives the circular end of shaft 56 to permit pivotal movement of shaft 56. Sheet metal member 58 is secured to the body 10 by two screws 60.

-When it is desired to adjust the arcuate valve plate 40 from the heating position to the cooling position or vice versa, it is only necessary to insert screw driver in the slot 62 of shaft 56 and to thus turn the shaft 56, arm 52, and valve plate 40. Movement of arm 52 causes valve plate 40 to slide in the groove 42 in the casing 10.

The dilfuser of this invention has been shown mounted at the ceiling with its back to the wall. It is also suitable for mounting at the Wall with the back of the unit against the fioor. In such a location the cooled air is delivered upwardly along the wall, and the heated air is delivered in two diverging streams adjacent the floor level.

The diffuser is also adapted to be mounted at or near the center of the ceiling. For instance, in a relatively long narrow room two of the diffusers mounted back to back at the center of the ceiling will deliver air to the room in a very effective manner.

Although I have described specifically the preferred embodiments of my invention, I contemplate that many changes may be made without departing from the scope or spirit of my invention, and I desire to be limited only by the claims.

I claim:

1. A diffuser for delivering air into a conditioned space comprising a hollow body having a bottom wall, side walls and an open side opposite and substantially parallel to said bottom wall, said open side being adapted to be secured to an air supply conduit in the conditioned space, said hollow body having interior walls extending upwardly from the bottom wall and inwardly from the side walls and dividing said hollow body into a first chamber and a second chamber with a valve opening be-,

tween the first chamber and the second chamber, a plurality of horizontally facing air discharge orifices in the side wall of said first chamber, a plurality of downwardly facing air discharge orifices in the bottom wall of the second chamber, an arcuate valve member rotatably mounted in said hollow body with its periphery in sliding contact with said interior Walls, said arcuate valve member having one edge in sliding engagement with said bottom wall and a second edge substantially in the plane of said open side, and adapted to sealingly engage the end of an air supply conduit, said arcuate valve member being adjustable to close the valve opening to the first chamber of the body or the second chamber of the body.

2. A diffuser for delivering air into a conditioned space comprising a casing having a bottom wall, a U-shaped side wall and an open side opposite and substantially parallel to said bottom wall, interior Walls extending upwardly from said bottom wall and inwardly from said U-shaped side wall, an arcuate valve member pivotally mounted on said bottom wall between said interior walls and extending from said bottom wall and adapted to engage the end of an air supply conduit, said arcuate valve member having its periphery in engagement with said interior walls to divide said casing into a substantially rectangular chamber and a substantially semi-cylindrical chamber, first air nozzles in the bottom wall of the substantially rectangular chamber and second air nozzles in the side wall of the substantially semi-cylindrical chamber.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,134,588 Stacey Oct. 25, 1938 2,197,614 Hall et al Apr. 16, 1940 2,261,579 Booth Nov. 4, 1941 2,407,284 Kennedy Sept. 10, 1946 2,470,488 Honerkamp et al. May 17, 1949 FOREIGN PATENTS 63,356 Denmark Apr. 5, 1945 

